Mayor’s roundtable discussion receives feedback from development community

City of Welland Mayor Frank Campion hosted a meeting Thursday Oct. 5/2017 at Civic Square with developers, investors, and real estate agents. A similar meeting was held in April 2016.

Mayor Campion and senior staff provided a brief update on the growth and economic activity taking place throughout the City as well as programs and incentives that support development. The development community brought forward issues and concerns and discussed current real estate trends and building activity in Welland and Niagara Region.

“We value our working relationships with investors and developers and appreciate having their feedback as well as the confidence they’ve shown by contributing to the growth and long-term prosperity of Welland,” said Mayor Frank Campion. “We’re very encouraged by the development activity and business investment to date, and we look forward to making positive announcements this fall.”

“We’re experiencing strong residential growth and we’re anticipating this trend to continue based on building permit applications and development proposals in the queue,” said Dan Degazio, Director of Economic Development. “In a highly competitive global economy, we’ve also been able to secure close to a 1 million sq. ft. of new industrial development over the past 18 months.”

The City of Welland’s Development Team, chaired by the Director of Economic Development who works closely with the Mayor, is focused on having a co-ordinated and results approach to development approvals and managing current projects. The team is comprised of City staff from Economic Development, Planning, Building, Fire, Engineering, Finance, and Administration.

“Our staff are committed to a culture of service excellence and continuous improvement,” said Chief Administrative Officer Gary Long. “Through stakeholder engagement and dialogue, we can ensure that our programs and incentives, our planning and building standards, and our service levels, are aligned with the expectations and requirements of the development community.”